Static
by FrankandJoe3
Summary: Otherwise known as the camping trip that never happened.


**It's only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea, but it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me.**

 **Disclaimer: references to child abuse and Artemis is a little out-of-character.**

* * *

Even as the team set out into the woods with bags hoisted over their shoulders, they weren't sure who among them had suggested the camping trip. It wasn't to be said that a single one among them didn't want to go- their trip earlier that year had been really fun, but now it was near the dead of winter and two out of the six couldn't be close to a fire without some degree of suffering. The weather was forgiving for now in the mid-fifties, but it could dip down at any time and leave them looking like Mr. Freeze's lackies.

They kept the wind in mind as they trekked and finally settled down in a section that very nearly had a wall of trees combating it. Three tents were set up, each easily big enough to hold at least two of them, and a bit of rummaging eventually had a decent woodpile boxed in with some rocks.

Dinner had been eaten before, seeing that the only decent cook among them couldn't get close to the fire, but marshmallows were a camping necessity. After Wally armed Kaldur and Megan with some fireproof blankets- Kaldur just kind of stared at his, but Megan bundled up under hers gratefully- a fire was started and the teens were all circled around it. Kaldur eventually bundled up beneath his blanket, too.

Marshmallows and sticks were passed out among them, the sky doing the same to the stars overhead, and conversation unfolded pretty quickly.

It started with Wally taking a stab at Robin for keeping his shades on.

"We know you've got eyes under there, Robbie, you're not fooling anyone. You're not the only detective on this team," he teased through a mouth of melted marshmallow.

Robin rolled his eyes, pulling his stick back from the fire. The marshmallow still had flames licking up it, and he let them stay, watching the tan burn away to an ugly black

"I don't make the rules, KF," he shrugged.

"And I don't follow them," the redhead countered.

In a literal flash, he had gone around the fire like a quick game of duck-duck-goose, and returned to his seat with the other's sunglasses in hand. Robin gave a noise of protest, getting to his feet and wielding the roasting stick like a club. His navy blues blistered in the light of the fire. The chase was short lived, and ended with Wally trying to peel the smeared marshmallow off his cheek with a laugh and a confident Robin taking his seat again. He kept the shades off this time.

It led them all into talking about secret identities and alter egos.

"We _save_ people. We shouldn't have to hide that," Conner said a little sourly, warming his knuckles by the fire.

Kaldur lifted his fireproof blanket a little higher as he scooted back farther from the fire, some degree of agreement crossing his features.

"It's not so much as... hiding ourselves as it is protecting those we love. If one of our adversaries were to figure out..."

"I understand _why_. I just don't agree with it," the clone said tiredly. "Do you even have a 'secret identity'? I mean, doesn't everyone in Atlantis _know_ who you are?"

Artemis pulled back the stick she had been roasting Kaldur's marshmallow on and handed it back to him, and he accepted it with some gratitude before answering.

"In Atlantis, maybe, but this isn't Atlantis," he took a bite of the marshmallow.

"Why would you give up that kind of freedom for a life up here?" Artemis asked, extending a hand and gesturing for the stick.

A little smile crossed the Atlantean's features, pure amusement, and he shook his head as he pulled the rest of his marshmallow off of it and handed it over.

"The Atlantis I was raised in and the one in your storybooks are two different places," he assured her, lessening the blanket around his shoulders. "Atlantis isn't far from what life in the United States is, aside from the monarchy and the mandatory military service."

Wally looked up with interest, elbow deep in the marshmallow bag, raising an eyebrow towards him.

"Aren't you a little young to serve?" he asked, raising a marshmallow filled hand in quick apology. "No offense."

Kaldur didn't seem the slightest bit offended.

"At 12, every child is enlisted," he explained.

The redhead paled at the thought of his twelve year old self, rat tail and all, out on the front lines. Superboy didn't seem too fond of the idea, and Megan put a hand to her heart subconsciously.

"That's horrible!" she said, biting her lip gently.

"On the bright side, I guess you guys didn't have to suffer through the middle school phase," Wally tried making light of it.

Artemis and Robin met eyes across the fire on accident, finding something along the lines of the same haunted look in the other's gaze. They both looked away quickly, but neither were quick to forget it.

"My folks didn't make it too easy, but I guess I'm thankful that I don't have to worry much about my secret identity. Someone unmasks me, they're not going to have a clue of who I am," Artemis held her hands up after catching Wally's eyes next and he tossed her what was left of the bag of marshmallows, "unlike Robin over here."

Robin's brow tightened a fraction and he flicked an accusing glare over at Wally, but the redhead looked just as startled as he was.

"What do you mean?" he asked her cautiously.

He set down his marshmallow stick so the slight shake in his hand wouldn't give him away, fingers feeling through the grass to find his shades again.

"A few minutes in and I'm already trying to figure out how I know you," the blonde said nonchalantly. "I've seen your face somewhere."

The youngest among them managed to keep back a sigh of relief. She couldn't place him. Maybe Batman wouldn't kill him after all.

"I'm a nobody, Arty," he assured her.

"Then why is Batman always up your butt about hiding your face then?" she countered, waving the stick accusingly.

This one Robin didn't have to lie about.

"Chances are, I'm going to know _his_ real identity. If a baddie places me, they'll be passing me through a meat grinder until I spit out a name."

She didn't look completely satisfied, and Wally was doing his best to keep a poker face, but Robin could live with that.

"'Chances are'?" Conner repeated, nibbling on the edge of a graham cracker.

Robin picked his stick up again and held it over in Artemis' direction, poking the marshmallow bag she held beside her. As she jabbed a marshmallow onto the end of his stick, he looked back at the clone.

"I'm not taking my risks with a meat grinder," he gave a crooked grin.

He set his marshmallow over the fire, the stick knocking into the one Wally had hoisted over the flames. They made eye contact and immediately began sword fighting with their roasting sticks.

"I'm definitely going to need some time to get used to the whole... secret identity thing," Megan mused, her eyes flashing white as she directed the fire back from the dueling duo.

Conner silently offered to make her another marshmallow and she declined with a polite wave of her hand. He shrugged and took another small bite from his graham cracker.

"I always thought that it seemed kind of exciting," Kaldur admitted.

Dick looked over at him and scrunched up his nose.

"No way, man," he shook his head, and gave a little gasp as Wally nearly unarmed him. "Highway chases and slapping the cuffs on a baddie are exciting. Secret identities are lame."

He lowered his stick and held it to his chest defensively, rolling his eyes as Wally turned up his nose and stuck out his tongue in victory.

"Says the kid who's had one his entire life," Artemis shot, leaning back onto her elbows.

Wally turned and stuck his tongue out at her, too. She mirrored the action.

"They're menial," Conner said, finishing off his graham cracker.

Robin held a hand up as though in a toast, a silent 'Amen' behind it.

"I don't know," Wally shook his head, "they've got _some_ cool aspects."

"Like...?"

The redhead crossed his legs and leaned his arms forward on his thighs, turning his head to look over at Robin. He faltered a moment, getting caught on the fact that his friend was unmasked, but he passed it off in a matter of a blink.

"Well," he said, opening his hand towards the youngest team member, "I remember, for a while at least, I had to be really careful about getting out of the house unnoticed. Mom hadn't found out about my speed, or that I was working with Flash. I thought she'd lose her head."

He pulled his marshmallow off of its stick and shoved it off to one side of his mouth, talking around it.

"Good news, she didn't," he went on with a smile, voice distorted behind the fluff," and better news, I know a lot of ways out of the house now."

Robin gave a little snort, looking to the grass with a smile of his own. Artemis rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, too. Kaldur and Conner didn't look surprised in the slightest, but the latter nearly looked impressed.

"I can't even imagine having to keep that big of a secret from the people I live with..." Megan said softly, fidgeting with the edge of her blanket.

At a discrete signal, she levitated Robin's marshmallow stick back into the bucket they had brought it in, eventually taking Kaldur's too. She passed chocolate bars to the both of them and at Wally's pleading, she baited one over his head and teased him with it until he seemed to nearly lose interest.

"I guess Robin's pretty blessed, then," Artemis mused slowly.

The dark-haired boy shot her a glare across the fire.

"Come on, why do you keep targeting me?" he asked, a little exasperated. "How am I 'blessed'?"

He looked around him for his roasting stick, and once he remembered that Megan had taken it, he took Wally's. He turned the sharp end towards himself and jabbed her with the blunt end of it. She grabbed it before he could nudge her again and shoved it his way, narrowly avoiding impaling him.

"Sorry," she held up a hand once she noticed, and he waved it off. "I just meant, well, what with Batman being your dad and all."

For a moment, everyone was quiet. The fire crackled, a few birds sang to each other across the forest, and the wind rustled the leaves just faintly. It was quiet, and then suddenly it wasn't as Robin nearly doubled over with laughter. Even Wally joined him at first, but then he seemed to remember that he wasn't supposed to know anything about his best friend and sobered up.

"The only thing that man could ever father would be justice. He's not my dad," he gasped out once he managed to catch a breath, and he looked up at Artemis with a grin. "What gave you that idea?"

"He's not?" Conner asked, genuinely confused.

Robin's grin faltered as he noticed that everyone seemed to have the same expression, aside from Wally, although he could tell his friend was trying to match their expressions to avoid standing out. It had him raising an eyebrow, taken back.

"No," he said slowly, and his shoulders fell. "I mean, we don't look _that_ alike, do we?"

Artemis scrunched her nose up in a fashion that all but said, "Well..."

Everyone else mostly seemed to be looking at each other.

"To be fair, I don't look like my dad either," Kaldur shrugged.

"Neither do I," Megan added.

"Non-human comments don't count," Robin decided with a frown.

"I _am_ human," Kaldur clarified. "Just sub-species."

The dark-haired boy grimaced at his own comment, but Kaldur didn't seem all that offended.

"Sorry," Robin said anyway, managing a smile as Kaldur held up a forgiving hand, "but he's not my dad."

"He's really protective, I guess," Megan offered. "He always has you tucked under his cape."

Robin couldn't help but laugh. Megan's face hadn't changed, though, aside from a new pallor that seemed to be a result of the fire.

"You really seem to look up to him," Artemis added.

He stared between the two of them, chewing absently on the inside of his lip, and then he shrugged because he was too uncomfortable to think of anything else to say. He didn't like to think about Bruce as his father. The man might have provided him a home and care, but there was a wall of blood and paperwork between them, and neither would acknowledge it. No one else acknowledged that wall, or if they did, they treated it as though he could just walk through it. He didn't know whether their ignorance or his cowardice hurt him more.

"Do your real parents know that you're working with Batman, then?" Kaldur asked.

Robin's shoulders jerked in a discrete flinch, but his face didn't change. Wally's reaction was bigger, and all he did was make a tiny whining sound.

"I can't," he started, sounding exasperated again.

"You don't have to answer," Kaldur said apologetically. "It makes sense that Batman would want you to hide that, too."

Robin smiled graciously, even if it was a little tight. Artemis wasn't having it, though.

"No, come on. It's not like we're asking for their names," she sat up, crossing her legs. "We're telling you all this stuff about us. Why don't you give us a little something too?"

"Artemis, stop," Wally warned her, lifting himself to his knees.

Robin was very visibly uncomfortable now, having moved back and drawn himself in tighter. Despite his immediate contortion, he managed to rub his neck.

"No," he said quietly, and thinking it was to him, Wally sat himself back down, staring in confusion. "My parents don't know about Batman. Or... Robin. Or... any of this, I guess."

Conner leaned forward, as everyone who seemed to want to pick a fight of sorts seemed to be doing now.

"So you're telling me five years in and they haven't noticed that you're never home?" he asked, apparently oblivious to how uncomfortable the younger hero was. "And that when you are, you're covered in bruises and cuts? No offense, but-"

Robin's face had gotten very tight by this point. Wally started to get to his knees again, anger sparking in his emerald eyes, but his friend set a trembling hand to his arm and immediately the redhead was back on the ground.

"I don't live with my parents anymore," he admitted, albeit very quietly.

Wally was quiet because he knew. Everyone else was quiet because they didn't. Artemis was the first one to speak up, and she leaned forward as she did, causing Robin to tense. In her eyes was a haunted look he knew well, a haunted look with a beam of curiosity cutting through it.

"Were they abusive?"

"No!" Robin was very quick to say.

Immediately, instead of an atmosphere of quiet, there was suspicion. It was like running through spider webs and Robin's skin crawled. He hooked his arms around the top of his knees and rubbed his forearm with a broken sigh, unable to shake the feeling.

"I guess you could say we had a bit of a... falling out?" he offered.

Wally choked on the marshmallow he had been chewing on, eyes wide. Everyone else was just staring, the reference lost on them. Even if they had been in on it, though, Robin wouldn't have looked any less uncomfortable. His skin was crawling enough to make him angry, and he wasn't just going to sit there.

"You were pretty quick to jump on that abusive train, Arty," Robin spotlighted the blonde who wouldn't let the matter die in the first place.

His eyes were narrow and his jaw was tight. He had a hand on Wally's back, feigned as though to help him not choke, but really to assure that his friend stayed silent on the matter. Wally didn't need a hand in keeping quiet, though.

Artemis rubbed her arm like Robin had before and looked down at the grass. "Yeah, I mean- you just... you acted funny. I don't know. Lay off, bird brain."

"No, come on. You get onto _me_ about keeping to myself. Tell us, what do _your_ parents do that make it 'not so easy'?" he demanded to know, maybe a little spiteful.

"Robin-," Kaldur held up a hand.

"She's a 'nobody'! What's there to hide?" the dark-haired boy almost shouted, hands shaking with the rage he was holding in. " _What_? Are they dead?"

The blonde kept her eyes on the grass as she gave a tiny huff. "I wish..."

Robin pressed his jaw a little tighter.

"You don't," Wally was quick to interject.

"Not everyone has picture perfect parents, Wally," Artemis rolled her eyes at him.

"I know, I don't have room to talk. Mine are pretty good," he said, and suddenly his voice grew colder. "I mean, sometimes my dad drinks and beats us so we have to live with my aunt and uncle for a few weeks, but everyone's parents do that every once in a while, right?"

The ice in his voice ran a chill through the team, and even Robin looked shell shocked. Moving as though he really were frozen, he slowly put an arm around his best friend and held onto him. After a moment, Artemis apologized, holding his eyes weakly.

"My father was abusive," she finally admitted, and her eyes went over to Dick. "Happy?"

Robin looked entirely hollow at this point, and the arm he had around Wally seemed to be more for holding _himself_ up.

"My parents are dead," he said in something quieter than a breath.

The eyes that hadn't been wide before were now, and those that had were wider now. Artemis' shoulders fell and even Wally looked over in surprise at his friend. Robin wasn't looking at any of them, though. He was staring into the fire, wishing the heat would dry the wetness in his eyes.

"So, ah, no," he got out awkwardly, tightening his hold on his friend. "I'm not happy. I'm... static."

No one was looking at anyone at this point in fear of a more painful confession amounting from the silence that was settling over them again. It was Megan who decided to stir it up again, bunching her fireproof blanket underneath her chin, eyes wide and wet.

"Static?" she probed, cautiously.

"Opposite of ecstatic," Wally guessed, and Robin confirmed it with a small nod.

"Oh," she said softly.

"We're all pretty static," Conner said in the quiet crackling of the fire.

A murmur of agreement passed through them all and they all turned their eyes to the dying embers in front of them, completely overwhelmed by the information they now knew. The fire snapped and crackled its condolences, but they weren't listening to it at this point. They were turning over the new facts in their mind, and it was clear on everyone's face.

"We didn't come out here to be static," Megan murmured.

She took a small breath, and looked up from the fire, chewing on her lip. The team little-by-little lifted their eyes from the flames to look at her, looking more like a group of broken teenagers than heroes at this point.

"I don't know much about camping, but on Mars, my cousins and I did something a lot like this where we would gather by the ancient river beds and watch the stars," she went on, and her eyes glazed over as the trees above broke apart to give better view to the stars overhead, shining spectacularly. "It's okay for us to do this. To... talk like this. I already feel closer to all of you. I just... think..."

The team was quiet still, but they all seemed to understand what she was getting at. No one was leaning forward anymore, at least.

"I used to go camping with my parents all the time," Robin said, and there was caution in the air, "and we did the same thing, only... we told stories."

"Weren't we storytelling a minute ago?" Conner challenged.

"No, we were. We just... my parents and I... told other stories...like how... well..." he paused and looked up at the stars, trying to remember an example. "Have you heard about vampire pumpkins?"

Kaldur raised an eyebrow. "Is this another excuse to try and show us Twilight again?"

Robin laughed tiredly and shook his head. "Not this time. I'll get you to watch it one day, though."

"Alright, vampire pumpkins," Artemis accepted the bait and waved her hand, gesturing for him to go on. "Give us something."

Robin leaned back and supported himself with his hands. "Okay, well, people used to believe that if you left inanimate objects, usually fruit and vegetables, outside at night, they could become vampires."

"Don't you need...?" Artemis used her two index fingers to indicate vampire teeth.

"I guess not," he shrugged.

Wally leaned back, too, only he lowered himself down onto his elbows. He looked up at his friend with a small smile, and then back over at Artemis.

"We're probably talking the 1700s though. That's when people were hanging everyone left and right for witchcraft."

"The Salem Witch Trials were in the 1600s," Conner interrupted.

"I don't care about witches," Megan waved her hand impatiently with a little grin, "tell me about the pumpkins."

Robin couldn't help but grin, too. "This was actually in the 1900s, believe it or not. Anyway, there's a town in Serbia and this guy's been farming watermelons and pumpkins for years..."

"Wait, vampire watermelons?" Wally's face lit up.

The grin didn't lessen as Robin nudged him, "Of course! So this guy's been farming them for years, and one day, he's off selling them in the market and a lady notices that there's like, blood on one of the watermelons she wants."

"I thought you said this was about pumpkins," Artemis said, a little disappointed.

"Vampire watermelons are even cooler," Wally defended.

"Maybe the farmer's just a serial killer," Conner mused distantly.

Robin couldn't help but laugh at their interest in his story. Already, everyone seemed brighter, starting to embody the stars overhead with the glows they were adopting. It brought some light to his own grin.

"I'm getting to that! And no, not like, blood splatter. The blood is like, in the skin of the watermelon. Almost looks like bruising. Anyway, she sees this blood and she kind of confronts the farmer about it..."

The sun was showing face between the trees before the team even thought about going to sleep. The night had taken them through Romani, Martian, and at Atlantean folklore until they couldn't remember which was which, or what had happened before they had started storytelling. The night had started as a half-hearted attempt to get out of Mount Justice, but now it was just a bunch of teenagers around a dying fire, looking very ecstatic.

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 **-F.J. III**


End file.
